Oman said Friday it was trying to reduce spiralling tensions between the Unites States and Iran, as the Pentagon confirmed it was considering deploying more troops to the region. The small but strategically located sultanate, which faces Iran across the highly sensitive Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, has maintained good relations with Tehran throughout successive regional crises. "We and other parties seek to calm tensions between Washington and Tehran," Muscat's state minister for foreign affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah said in a statement.

Army engineers say two runaway barges did "minimal" damage when they struck an Arkansas River dam. The barges, filled with 1,500 tons of fertilizer, swept down the flood-swollen river and hit the Webbers Falls Lock and Dam about noon Thursday and sank. Town officials in the riverfront town of Webbers Falls had warned residents to flee for fear such a collision would catastrophically breach the dam and flood the town.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks on Friday to form a new cabinet to tackle a stuttering economy and other challenges facing his second term after winning a big majority. Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party had won 296 of the 542 seats up for grabs and was ahead in seven more, up from the 282 it won in 2014. The BJP would have the first back-to-back majority in the lower house of parliament for a single party since 1984.

Prominent Trump critic George Conway on Thursday posted a picture of President Trump's $35,000 check to his former lawyer Michael Cohen, along with a quote from Trump's Wednesday press conference: “I don't do cover-ups. Cohen has testified that the check was partial reimbursement for the $130,000 he paid actress Stormy Daniels as hush money to cover up a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump. The money changed hands shortly before the 2016 election and was part of the evidence in Cohen's plea deal with federal prosecutors that resulted in his prison sentence.

Wild footage from a Spirit Airlines flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota, shows a passenger who began smoking mid-flight, breaking one of the cardinal rules of air travel. The clip, recorded by a fellow passenger on May 21, captured a visibly intoxicated man in a dark tee shirt and khaki shorts light up and take a puff before lowering the smoking cigarette to his lap and seemingly falling asleep. A man sitting across the aisle from the rule-breaking passenger can be seen flagging down a flight attendant, who rushes over and hits the man's chest to wake him up and inform him what he's doing is illegal.

It's sometimes hard to make sense of what's going on with Tesla. Is the company on the verge of going bankrupt, or poised to set new records for deliveries? A few days ago, an internal email from Musk to Tesla employees claimed that the company was in danger of running out of cash in just 10 months time.

Three Indian climbers and one Nepali guide died on Mount Everest in the past couple of days, taking to seven the total number killed or missing on the world's highest mountain in this year's climbing season, Nepali officials said on Friday. More than 120 climbers scaled Everest on Thursday, but some of them were caught in the crowd of people on the slopes, leading to exhaustion, dehydration and death, the officials said. Hiking officials say between five and ten climbers die on Mount Everest in an average climbing year.

An emotional Theresa May announced she will quit as Britain's prime minister after admitting she had failed to deliver the one task that defined her time in office -- taking the country out of the European Union. May said Britain now needs a new prime minister to take over and try to complete the task that has defeated her. The result will shape the direction of Brexit and all options -- from leaving with no deal to canceling the divorce -- are now back on the table.

An international tribunal is due to rule Saturday on a dispute over Russia's holding 24 Ukrainian sailors and three naval vessels seized off the Crimea peninsula late last year. Judge Jin-Hyun Paik of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the German port city of Hamburg was scheduled to announce its decision at noon (1000 GMT). The incident in November in the Kerch Strait was the most dangerous direct clash in years between Russia and its ex-Soviet neighbour, which have been locked in conflict for over five years.

An outbreak of nasty storms spawned tornadoes that razed homes, flattened trees and tossed cars across a dealership lot, injuring about two dozen people in Missouri's capital city and killing at least three others elsewhere in the state. The National Weather Service confirmed that a large and destructive twister moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight Wednesday. The tornado cut a path about 3 miles long and a mile wide from the south end of Jefferson City north toward the Missouri River, said police Lt. David Williams.

Accused of having a temper tantrum at the White House the day before, President Donald Trump did what anyone trying to prove their serenity would do: He put together a press conference during which he asked five aides to attest to his calmness. On Thursday afternoon, Trump hosted a group of American farmers at the White House to tout his administration's $16 billion aid plan for farmers afflicted by his ongoing trade war. Over the course of several minutes, the president asked White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, top economic adviser Larry Kudlow, and two top communications hands—Mercedes Schlapp and Hogan Gidley—to relay to the gathered press that he was the picture of tranquility when he met Democratic congressional leaders day before.

Facebook has been accused of leaving 'broken children' as collateral damage in the wake of their commercial aims, the child sex abuse inquiry has heard. Barrister William Chapman, representing the victims of abuse at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), said social media companies were not preventing paedophiles reaching children as it was “contrary to their business model” and that their apps needed to be “fundamentally redesigned”. Police also warned that tech firms were going ahead with plans to encrypt more features "in the certain knowledge" it would lead to more children being abused.

Simulator training remains a "possible option" for Canadian Boeing 737 MAX pilots, but it's too early to say whether it would be mandatory, a Transport Canada official said on Thursday night, further distancing the regulator from previous remarks by the country's transport minister. "It would be premature not seeing what Boeing has fully proposed yet to determine if simulator training will in fact be included," said Nicholas Robinson, the regulator's director general, civil aviation, told reporters on a conference call following a meeting of global regulators in Texas. Canada's Transport Minister Marc Garneau called in April for pilots to received simulator training for Boeing's software fix.

There are millions of apps available for your phone, but you can't take all of them on your next trip. Of the 10 most-downloaded iPhone apps last year, only one – Google Maps – made the list (at No. 8). "Google Maps first comes to mind," says Anne Woodyard, who owns a tour company in Reston, Virginia.

Buying a first-generation Land Rover Discovery used to be cheap. The Land Rover Discovery has endured hard times in the used car marketplace. As the Range Rover Classic has quickly become one of the most desirable, sought after and expensive collector cars on the planet, those of more rational or 'peasant status' have turned to the humbled Discovery in search of everyday practicality with up-coming collector car status.

Key Developments:May will inform her advisers Friday morning of the day she plans to stand down, the FT reportedMay’s Brexit legislation isn’t listed for debate in the first week of June as promised, but the government says it still hopes to put it to Parliament that weekEU elections are under way. The prime minister will meet with her advisers at 10 a.m. to reveal her decision and will also meet Graham Brady, chairman of the rank and file 1922 Committee, it said. May appeared determined to re-write her Withdrawal Agreement Bill to make it palatable to her party when she met with Home Secretary Sajid Javid, according to a person familiar with the discussion.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met allies and former mentors Friday to plot a course for his second term after a landslide victory left the once-mighty Gandhi dynasty reeling. A considerable to-do list includes addressing India's lacklustre economic growth and reducing unemployment, as well as fixing a stricken agriculture sector on which 70 percent of households depend. Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, its best ever score, giving it an even bigger majority than five years ago and defying predictions of a dip, final results confirmed Friday.

A new indictment against Julian Assange could further delay what was already expected to be a protracted battle to get the WikiLeaks founder out of a London jail cell and into a U.S. court, opening the door for his legal team to argue that the Espionage Act charges are political and thus not covered by an extradition treaty between the two countries. U.S. authorities want to extradite Assange to face charges that he directed the publication of a huge trove of secret documents that disclosed the names of people who provided confidential information to American and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The criteria aren't clearly spelled out, but Assange and his lawyers are likely to use the charges filed Thursday to argue that the Justice Department wants to put him on trial for crimes that are inherently political in that they involve the acquisition and publication of government secrets.

President Trump on Thursday escalated his attacks on those involved in launching the federal investigation into his campaign's contacts with Russia, saying “a number of people” should be tried for treason. He also delivered what he thinks should be the verdict: Guilty. Among them: former FBI Director James Comey; ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; Peter Strzok, the deputy assistant director of counterintelligence; and Lisa Page, an FBI attorney who was romantically involved with Strzok at the time the probe began in 2016.

JPMorgan Chase & Co has cut ties with Purdue Pharma LP over the OxyContin maker's alleged role in the U.S. opioid crisis, forcing it to find a new bank to manage cash and bill payments, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The move makes JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, the most high-profile corporation known to have distanced itself from Purdue and its wealthy owners, the Sackler family, amid thousands of lawsuits alleging the company pushed addictive painkillers while downplaying their abuse and overdose risks. JPMorgan's decision also underscores a drive among U.S. banks to reassess their relationships with clients and industries in response to controversy and political debates over matters such as immigration detention and mass shootings.

Top politicians in Alabama have resulted to publicly calling for the Supreme Court to review Roe v Wade in the wake of the state passing the most severe restrictions against abortions in America. Del Marsh, one of the 25 all-male senators who voted for the abortion ban earlier this month, defended the legislation against criticism for not including exceptions for rape or incest by saying its sole purpose is to challenge the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling. “At the end of the day, the bill passed with the only exemption the health of the mother,” he said in an interview with Sky News. “What I voted for was a bill to get to the Supreme Court to challenge Roe v Wade.”“That’s what the instrument is,” he continued. “We understand that this is not the end game. The federal courts are going to have to make a determination. What we're trying to do is force, then reconsider. That's what this is all about."Alabama’s abortion ban arrived amid a national trend in which states are passing restrictive legislation surrounding women’s reproductive health. Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia and Mississippi have also approved similar laws in which abortions on banned when a fetal heartbeat is detected. Those restrictions can occur six weeks into a pregnancy, when most people are not yet aware they are with a child. Not all states have taken a conservative approach towards abortion access in recent months, however. Nevada’s state legislature passed a bill relaxing decades-old policies surrounding abortion that critics said deterred women from seeking access. Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey also called for the Supreme Court to reconsider its landmark ruling when signing the abortion ban. “Many Americans, myself included, disagreed when Roe v Wade was handed down in 1973,” she said in a statement at the time. “The sponsors of this bill believe that it is time, once again, for the US Supreme Court to revisit this important matter, and they believe this act may bring about the best opportunity for this to occur.”The wave of bans have sparked major protests across the country, with many 2020 presidential hopefuls speaking out against the restrictive measures against women’s reproductive rights. “Our democracy only works when the people of this country stand up and demand it,” Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York senator running for the White House, said at a StopTheBans rally in Washington on Tuesday. “Do not allow this moment to pass without putting everything you have behind it … organise, advocate and vote.”